Differential effects on pain intensity and unpleasantness of two meditation practices.

Abstract

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, which can be regulated by many different cognitive mechanisms. We compared the regulatory qualities of two different meditation practices during noxious thermal stimuli: Focused Attention, directed at a fixation cross away from the stimulation, which could regulate negative affect through a sensory gating mechanism; and Open Monitoring, which could regulate negative affect through a mechanism of non-judgmental, nonreactive awareness of sensory experience. Here we report behavioral data from a comparison between novice and long-term meditation practitioners (long-term meditators, LTMs) using these techniques. LTMs, compared to novices, had a significant reduction of self-reported unpleasantness, but not intensity, of painful stimuli, while practicing Open Monitoring. No significant effects were found for FA. This finding illuminates the possible regulatory mechanism of meditation-based clinical interventions such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Implications are discussed in the broader context of training-induced changes in trait emotion regulation.

Pain-Related Rumination, But Not Magnification or Helplessness, Mediates Race and Sex Differences in Experimental Pain

“…Mindfulness-based therapies, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction 37 , mindfulness-based cognitive therapy 67 , and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 31 may be especially potent strategies. Indeed, these treatments have been shown to improve pain outcomes such as pain intensity, functional limitations, and psychological distress 57,65 , and they have also been found to reduce ruminative thinking associated with depression, cancer, and school-related stress 14,34,44 . Unfortunately, although mindfulness-related treatment effects have been demonstrated in women 8,38,63,68 , only a few studies have examined their effectiveness in Black individuals and none were focused on pain 16,66,82 .…”

The impact of mindfulness on emotion dysregulation and psychophysiological reactivity under emotional provocation.

“…Mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 1990), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), have been evaluated and found to be effective treatment for a wide range of psychological difficulties (Baer, 2003). Research has indicated the benefits of mindfulness training for preventing the relapse of depression (Teasdale et al,2000), reducing anxiety and negative affect (Shapiro, Brown, & Biegel, 2007), reducing pain sensations (Perlman, Salomons, Davidson, & Lutz, 2010), reducing negative automatic thoughts (Frewen, Evans, Maraj, Dozois, & Partridge, 2007), promoting brain activity in areas associated with positive emotion (Davidson et al, 2003), and improving working memory (van Vugt, & Jha, 2011). Despite the initial support of mindfulness and its associated treatments, several researchers (e.g., Davidson, 2010;Lynch, Chapman, Rosenthal, Kuo, & Linehan, 2006) have suggested more research is needed to establish the mechanisms through which mindfulness increases psychological functioning and decreases psychological distress.…”

“…Several lines of research have suggested that mindfulness interventions, which have been shown to improve psychological flexibility and functioning (e.g., Shapiro et al, 2007;Perlman et al, 2010), do so by providing a way to cultivate effective emotion regulation.…”

Does Meditation Reduce Pain through a Unique Neural Mechanism?

“…Most of these have demonstrated effects of mindfulness on the affective and evaluative components of pain (McCracken et al, 2007;Morone et al, 2008;Perlman et al, 2010), but some have also demonstrated effects on sensory thresholds (Grant et al, 2010(Grant et al, , 2011 and perceived pain intensity (Grant and Rainville, 2009). Exploration of the biological mechanisms of such treatments may increase our ability to treat pain disorders by enhancing our understanding of endogenous pain regulation.…”